Northern Broadsides in partnership with the New Vic Theatre bring An August Bank Holiday Lark to West Yorkshire Playhouse this month. Set during the outbreak of World War I, the play examines the effect of distant conflict on a small Lancashire community.

New writing comes from the pen of Deborah McAndrew. Written with a rich Northern voice and warm sardonic wit, McAndrew successfully recreates an ensemble of early 20th century Lancastrian characters recognisable through universal identifiers; there is the family man, the ambitious poet, a reckless adventurer, a pushy single mill girl and a waiflike spinster. Naturally there is also the secret love affair which is interrupted by war. The community is centred on the Squire, a widower who fills his time tending his garden and co-ordinating Morris Men. John Farrar is a petty tyrant with petty concerns, all of which become subverted by tragedy on a global scale.

Bernard Shaw’s most famous play, Pygmalion, visits the Grand Theatre Leeds this month. Drawing its title from the Greek myth about an artist who falls in love with his own sculpture, Pygmalion has influenced a body of cultural work in the past century, including adaptations such as My Fair Lady, Pretty Woman and more subtle derivations in Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes. It has even had artificial intelligence programs named after its leading lady.

Pygmalion follows the story of Henry Higgins as he meets Eliza Doolittle, a waiflike cockney flower seller with aspirations to improve her diction and become ladylike. She visits Higgins with a view to gaining elocution lessons, but he readily sees Doolittle as an opportunity for a great linguistic experiment. As remarkable transformations take place at his home on Wimpole Street, neither foresee the challenge, conflict and division which her cultural evolution will soon create.